New Stirling Engine Forum Updates

[Tom Booth]

BTW,

If anyone has any problems, questions, concerns, ideas or suggestions I can always be contacted directly through the link at the bottom of the page:

Admin contact link

admin_contact_.jpg (94.2 KiB) Viewed 1690 times

https://stirlingenginebuilders.com/index.php

[Tom Booth]

There is the additional forum being set up here as well:

https://stirling-engine.boards.net/

There is no direct admin contact form on that service though.

[Tom Booth]

I have both programmatic (phpBB) and server access (access and security logs) on the "builders" site.

The site, immediately experienced numerous hacking and spam attempts. The security logs shows many attempts to directly access the admin area from IP addresses and browsers and/or locations that were/are certainly not from me.

This seemed rather irregular in that the site had hardly gone "live" at that point and infact has no other direct access links online anywhere other than those posted to this forum.

I'm considering starting a thread in the admin area for sharing the IP and email addresses of such hackers and spammers for the benefit of other forum owners and forum users alike.

There are already databases dedicated to this sort of thing where spam and hacker IP's are shared between forum owners.

If anyone has their IP blocked inadvertantly and you think this was a mistake, feel free to contact me directly by any other means available and I may be able to unblock your IP/email.

Security on the Proboards forum is mostly in the hands of that service.

[Tom Booth]

A useful resource:

https://www.stopforumspam.com/search

Very useful for pre-screening newly registered forum members by email, username and IP address prior to activation

https://whatismyipaddress.com/blacklist-check

Here it is possible to check if an IP has already been blacklisted for spam on multiple services.

[Tom Booth]

stop_forum_spam_logo.jpg (102.26 KiB) Viewed 1515 times

[Tom Booth]

I have been gradually making my way through the old threads on this forum and thinking about what categories things might be organized under.

One thread that caught my attention:

http://stirlingengineforum.com/viewtopi ... icks#p6092

includes this photo:

remains-of-a-w-h-bailey-hot-air-engine-robert-down.jpg (169.49 KiB) Viewed 1282 times

The image file name includes the name Robert Downs, who has a page on Alamy

https://www.alamy.com/remains-of-a-w-h- ... ct&irgwc=1

The post refers to this as a "Forgotten Relic" which I think might be a good Top Level Forum category.

Forgotten Relics

[Tom Booth]

This could almost be a topic in itself

viewtopic.php?t=636

At least I think it should be more prominent or easy to find. We have had several big "drum" type Stirling engine projects and/or ideas for such projects.

That thread includes a link to this video of a giant size "tin can" type walking beam Stirling engine made from big metal drums. Something I've been planning to do or would like to see at least, and there it has been on the forum all along, since way back in 2010.

https://youtu.be/mjFbi_dJT6U?si=XqTwdVxcc4w3iaLY

[Tom Booth]

Not much time left.

Unless something changes, this domain is set to expire in ten days.

From ICANN:

"Registry Expiration: 2025-01-26 15:55:04 UTC"

[Tom Booth]

A reconstructed "read only" mirror of this site can be made available for future reference.

If anyone is interested let me know.

[Tom Booth]

Minus all the spam, of course.

[Tom Booth]

"Due to the passing of Darryl Boyd, and in consideration of the recent flood of spam accounts and posts, the Stirling Engine Forum has been closed...."

Why not just remove the spam, rather than Darryl's legacy that he obviously cared deeply about, to keep it going for nearly 15 years, along with all the contributions to the forum from his friends.